1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article dispensing apparatus that dispenses the lowest-positioned article from a stack of articles.
The present invention is applicable to any type of article dispensing apparatuses, such as gaming machines, automatic vending machines, prize or premium dispensing apparatuses and so on if they need the function of dispensing the lowest-positioned article from a stack of articles.
2. Description of Related Art
As the first prior-art technique for the present invention, an automatic discharging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4092452 issued in 2008 is known. This prior-art automatic discharging apparatus comprises a lifting mechanism for lifting box-shaped articles, wherein the box-shaped articles are stored in the form of a stack in an article storing section and wherein the lifting mechanism lifts the articles located at upper positions in the stack than the lowest-positioned article; a slider movable horizontally by way of a rack which is drivably connected to a motor; a pusher for pushing the lowest-positioned article, wherein the pusher is rotatably connected to the rear end of the slider with a pin and is energized toward the articles with a spring.
As the second prior-art technique for the present invention, a commodity dispensing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5109087 issued in 2012 is known. This prior-art commodity dispensing apparatus comprises a pusher for pushing the rear wall of the lowest-positioned one of box-shaped commodities, wherein the box-shaped commodities are stacked in a commodity storing device; a second pusher placed at a position behind the pusher in a direction of pushing the rear wall of the commodity (which will be termed the “pushing direction” below); a movable member having a plate-shaped part that closes the area between the pusher and the second pusher; and a traverse camshaft device for reciprocating the movable member. The pusher, the second pusher and the plate-shaped part are configured in such a way that the plate-shaped part can be moved in conjunction with the reciprocation motion of the movable member to the standby position which is equal to or lower than the height of the lowest-positioned commodity and the pushing position which is equal to or higher than the height of the lowest-positioned commodity.
With the aforementioned prior-art automatic discharging apparatus, the lowest-positioned article is pushed out by the pusher connected to the slider in accordance with the motion of the slider while reducing the weight applied to the lowest-positioned article in the stack of the articles by using the lifting mechanism. However, the second lowest-positioned article is placed on the lowest-positioned article until the push out motion of the lowest-positioned article is completed. Therefore, the attitude of the second lowest-positioned article is not stable at the time when the push out motion of the lowest-positioned article is completed and as a result, there is a problem that the pushing out operation is unable to be maintained because the second lowest-positioned article is turned to an unwanted standing state or the like.
With the aforementioned prior-art commodity dispensing apparatus, the pusher, the second pusher and the plate-shaped part are moved to the pushing position from the standby position in conjunction with the motion of the movable member in the pushing direction. Thus, the lowest-positioned commodity is pushed by the pusher and the second lowest-positioned commodity is raised by the plate-shaped part, thereby sending out the lowest-positioned commodity while keeping the attitude of the second lowest-positioned commodity stable. However, the pusher, the second pusher and the plate-shaped part are moved by using the traverse camshaft device and thus, the pusher, the second pusher and the plate-shaped part are moved to the standby position from the pushing position in accordance with the retreating motion of the movable member. However, the stack of the commodities is moved out of the commodity storing device before completing the motions of the pusher, the second pusher and the plate-shaped part to the standby position from the pushing position. For this reason, the second lowest-positioned commodity which is supported by the plate-shaped part is likely to drop toward the base, resulting in a problem that the attitude of the second lowest-positioned commodity is not stable.